The fifth and final season of Amazon’s The Boys premiered April 8 with an episode titled “Fifteen Inches of Sheer Dynamite.” For the uninitiated, The Boys is developed by Eric Kripke and based off a comic book series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, and it’s about corrupt superheroes and the vigilantes attempting to bring them down.
In the episode that premiered April 8, the corrupt and speedy superhero A-Train, birth name Reggie Franklin, (Jessie T. Usher) appears to meet with his brother Nathan. “F–k are you doing, a—–e?” Nathan asks A-Train. “Thought I asked you to swing through Austin and pick us up some Franklin’s.” TikTok user @abrowngirldiary recorded and posted the clip.
Nathan was in fact referring to Franklin Barbecue, the Austin smokehouse that has been instrumental in increasing the fame of Texas barbecue. A-Train’s inability to score brisket didn’t impact Nathan too much, as he noted he had some ribeye steaks in the refrigerator.
Franklin Barbecue opened back in 2009 as an Austin popup, then became a brick-and-mortar restaurant in 2012. It quickly changed everything for Texas barbecue, putting more emphasis on chef-driven consistency, making brisket a star, and inspiring an entire generation of pitmasters who have since done extraordinary work in pushing barbecue forward.